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Finding Aid to the James D. Hart papers, 1928-1991
BANC MSS
92/747 c
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Table of contents
Collection Title: James D. Hart papers
Date (inclusive): 1928-1991
Collection Number: BANC MSS
92/747 c
Creator:
Hart, James David, 1911-1990
Extent:
Number of containers: 24 boxes, 44 cartons, 1 card file box, 2 oversize
boxes, 1 oversize folder.
Linear feet: circa 70
Repository: The Bancroft Library.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored
offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the
location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: The James D. Hart Papers are the professional files of an
educator and director of The Bancroft Library. Born in San Francisco in 1911, Hart
was a fifth generation Californian with a passion for books and fine printing. His
scholarly career at UC Berkeley included distinguished research, teaching, and
publication. The collection contains extensive correspondence with authors,
printers, and prominent Californians; drafts for articles, books, and other
writings; speeches; material related to his academic career, and a small amount of
personal papers.
Languages Represented:
English
Collection is open for research.
Materials in this collection may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title
17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted
by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor
restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks.
Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that
allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners.
Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without
permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively
with the user.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection
materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000. See:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html .
[Identification of item], James D. Hart papers, BANC MSS 92/747 c, The Bancroft
Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Printed materials have been transferred to the book collection of The Bancroft
Library.
Videotapes/sound recordings have been transferred to the Microforms Collection of
The Bancroft Library.
Illustrations transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library
(BANC PIC 1985.104--PIC).
Clay bust transferred to the Pictorial Collections of the Bancroft Library (BANC
PIC 2010.079--OBJ).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog
Hart, James D. (James
David), 1911-1990--Archives
Bancroft Library
University of
California, Berkeley
University of
California, Berkeley. Dept. of English
Fine books
Minutes
Faculty papers
Manuscripts for publication
Minutes
Faculty papers
Manuscripts for publication
The James D. Hart Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by James D. Hart, in
several installments, during the course of his tenure as Director of The
Bancroft Library.
Collection processed by Linda Jordan, Cris Martinez and Cimone Satele in December
2001. Additions processed by Bancroft Library staff in 2011.
James D. Hart, a fifth-generation Californian, developed an early passion for fine
books and fine printing. During high school at the Menlo School, Menlo Park,
California, he came to know Edwin and Robert Grabhorn at the Grabhorn Press of San
Francisco, and persuaded them to design and print
The Menlo
Musketeer
, the school annual during Hart's senior year in 1928. Fine
printing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries remained a lifelong specialty of
Hart's.
After earning his A.B. degree at Stanford University in 1932, he earned his M.A.
degree in English at Harvard University in 1933, following it with the Ph.D. in
1936. Joining the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley in
1936 he commenced a long career of distinguished research, teaching, publication,
and service at the University. His lectures on American literature were among the
most popular offered in the Department of English. He served at chairman of the
English Department in 1955-1957, and again in 1965-1968.
Hart's publications include works on Frank Norris, Robert Louis Stevenson, and
Richard Henry Dana, this last the subject of his thesis at Harvard University. In
1950, Oxford University Press published his pioneering work,
The Popular
Book: A History of America's Literary Taste
. But his most widely known
publication was his classic
Oxford Companion to American Literature,
which went through five editions during his lifetime, and remains a standard
reference work.
He also served as vice chancellor at Berkeley from 1957-1960. Throughout most of his
career at Berkeley, Hart served on the Academic Senate Library Committee, and also
on the Subcommittee for The Bancroft Library. In 1961-62, he served as acting
director at Bancroft, and in 1970 was appointed its permanent director.
Other academic appointments during Hart's career included visiting professorships at
Upsala, Sweden in 1950 and Harvard University in 1964. He chaired the Marshall
Scholarship Committee for the Western United States from 1959 to 1963. He was
decorated a Commander of the British Empire in 1963 for promoting Anglo-American
relations. In later years he served as a trustee of Mills College, Oakland,
California, 1970-78, and again from 1979, and as a trustee Fine Arts Museums San
Francisco, 1983 until his death.
The James D. Hart Papers are the professional files of an educator and director of
The Bancroft Library. Born in San Francisco in 1911, Hart was a fifth generation
Californian with a passion for books and fine printing. His scholarly career at the
University of California Berkeley included distinguished research, teaching and
publication. The collection contains extensive correspondence with authors,
printers, and prominent Californians; drafts for articles, books and other writings;
speeches; material related to his academic career, and a small amount of personal
papers.